Education Minister Showcases New App to Students

A new iPad app developed by the province was on show Thursday in Swift Current as Education Minister Gord Wyant visited Irwin School.

The app, called Aski's Pond, integrates First Nations and Metis content and ways of knowing with math skills for Grade 1s.

Wyant said the focus on improving math skills is big, but knowledge of Saskatchewan's past is too.

"We're the first province to introduce treaty education in our classrooms, and I think that ensuring that our kids understand the history of our province, understand cultural aspects of this province, is pretty important. And so, as we're continuing to develop cirriculum, as we continue to work on these things in the classroom, ensuring that kids understand the history of this province, understand the important role that First Nations have played."

Wyant said since technology is everywhere, it makes sense for kids to take advantage of it in their education.

"There's certainly funding available through the funding model to all the school divisions with respect to enhancing technology within individual schools within school divisions, and so we leave it to the school divisions in terms of how those budgets are rolled out," Wyant added. "But if we're going to use technology, if we're going to embrace it to help the educational experience for children, then we have to be a lot more conscious in terms of how much money is actually dedicated to that tool."

The free app, available in English and French, was designed with support from a local Saskatchewan digital design agency named zu.

"Immersive digital experiences have the potential to be a great educational tool," zu CEO Ryan Lejbak said. "The ministry understood this and gave us the creative space to imagine Askî’s Pond. We’re so proud of this project and the ministry’s commitment to modern products like this."

Swift Current MLA Everett Hindley joined the students as they tried out the app (photos courtesy Chinook School Division)